A number of hand-held vibratory massagers are known in the art. These massagers typically include an elongated handle coupled to a massaging head. A single source of vibration vibrates the massaging head by rotating an eccentric flyweight or cam mounted within the head. While these types of massagers are suitable for providing a relaxing vibratory massage sensation, the massagers are limited in the types of sensations they can induce.
To enable various types of massage sensations, some hand-held vibratory massagers include shaped heads. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,958,628 to Iwamoto et al. discloses a massager including a head having ribbed side faces for enabling a tapping massage. U.S. Pat. No. 4,604,993 to Moriwaki et al. discloses a massager with a head having a flat rubbing massage top surface and a curved tapping massage side surface. U.S. Pat. No. 4,848,156 to Teranishi discloses a massager having a head containing small outwardly pointed projections on one face. Although helpful in allowing for varying massage sensations, these single motor massagers are still limited in the degree and type of vibration they can provide at the point of contact between the shaped portions and the user's body.
U.S. Pat. Des. 331,467, commonly owned by the owner of the present application, discloses another single motor massager with a shaped head. This massager includes a substantially spherical massaging head having a nipple-shaped side face for producing a finger-like massage at a localized area of a user's body. The outward appearance of this massager is similar to that of the present invention. However, the prior art massager contains only a single source of vibration for vibrating the entire head, including its nipple-shaped side face. The single source of vibration is a motor housed in the handle coupled to an eccentric cam located within the massaging head. Users would prefer a massager that is capable of producing a wide variety of massage sensations, including, for example, intense massage sensations proximate the point of contact of the massaging head to the user's body.